Vegan Vanilla Cake

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYBODY! As always, I hope everybody had a fantastic weekend. So, I decided to talk about my experience with vegan cake. Only because my birthday is coming up very soon and what better topic to talk about than cake! Cake is not my FAVORITE dessert, but nonetheless, people do enjoy cake, and  I hope y'all enjoy this recipe!

So, I noticed that when I baked the cake, it took a tiny bit longer than usual. So I would suggest maybe adding an additional 5 minutes just to be on the safe side. For "stick butter" substitute, I like to use Earth Balance. To me, I can't really tell a difference so that is a good thing! Now, for the shortening, this took some hard research as I didn't even know there was a substitute for shortening, nor did I know that typical shortening was not vegan. Luckily, I did find out that Crisco is vegan. BUT here are a list of other vegan shortening brands: Spectrum, Nutiva, Admiration, and Wesson. For the milk, we can use soy milk, almond milk, or rice milk. I like to use either almond milk only because it just honestly tastes better to me. But in the end, it is whatever you prefer to use!



Now, I was not a huge fan of the first bite in the cake when I had made it. To me, it just seemed a little dense. HOWEVER, after a couple more bites (or an extra slice or two I should say), it really grew on me. The frosting on top was rather different too. But not different in a bad way. It was actually really good and I preferred it over the regular frosting. Overall, I really did enjoy this recipe and I certainly prefer it over the original. I don't know if you guys have noticed or not, but I do tend to make my desserts a tad sweeter than what it usually calls for. So, if you think it might be too sweet for you, you can always cut down the amount of sugar. Or, I like to use Blue Agave nectar or monk fruit sugar. I tend to use a lot less of that, but the dessert still taste sweet.

Enjoy and I will write to you guys next week! Also, tell me in the comments what your favorite dessert is to have during your birthday!! :)

-Maranda

Ingredients for Cake:

• 1 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 3 Tbsp corn starch
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions for Cake:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Grease and line your pan with parchment paper
• Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda into one bowl
• In another bowl, mix milk and vinegar
• Add oil, vanilla, and sugar and mix well
• Combine your dry ingredients with your wet ingredients and mix well. 
• Pour into pan, bake for 25-30 minutes. (This is including the additional 5 I had told you about earlier)

Ingredients for frosting:

• 3/4 cup stick butter substitute
• 3/4 cup vegan shortening
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup non dairy milk
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions for frosting:

• Beat the butter and shortening together on medium with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes
• Change the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar
• Add the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to the mixture, continue mixing
• Add the non dairy milk slowly into the mixture while still mixing

Once all that is complete, you can start assembling your cake however you would like to!!!